The Kora, Khora or Cora were one of the ten indigenous tribes of the

Great Andamanese people The Great Andamanese are an indigenous people of the Great Andaman archipelago in the Andaman Islands. Historically, the Great Andamanese lived throughout the archipelago, and were divided into ten major tribes. Their distinct but closely relat ...

, originally living on the eastern part of

North Andaman Island North Andaman Island is the northern island of Great Andaman of the Andaman Islands. It belongs to the North and Middle Andaman district, North and Middle Andaman administrative Districts of India, district, part of the Indian union territory o ...

in the

Indian Ocean The Indian Ocean is the third-largest of the world's five oceanic divisions, covering or ~19.8% of the water on Earth's surface. It is bounded by Asia to the north, Africa to the west and Australia to the east. To the south it is bounded by th ...

. The tribe is now extinct, although some of the remaining Great Andamanese on Strait Island claim to have Kora ancestors. The tribe spoke a distinctive Kora language, closely related to the other

Great Andamanese languages The Great Andamanese languages are a nearly extinct language family once spoken by the Great Andamanese peoples of the Andaman Islands in the Indian Ocean. History By the late 18th century, when the British first established a colonial presenc ...

. The native name for the language was ''Aka-Kora'', also spelled ''Aka-Khora'' or ''Aka-Cora'' (''Aka-'' being a prefix for "tongue"); and this name is often used for the tribe itself. They were divided between shore-dwellers (''aryoto'') and forest-dwellers (''eremtaga'') subtribes.

History

By the time of the first permanent British settlement at Port Blair (1858), the estimated size of the Kora tribe was about 500 individuals, out of perhaps 3500 Great Andamanese.George Weber (~2009),
Numbers
''. Chapter 7 in

''. Accessed on 2012-07-12. However the tribe was discovered only much later, in the work leading to the 1901 census. Like other

Andamanese people The Andamanese are the indigenous peoples of the Andaman Islands, part of India's Andaman and Nicobar Islands union territory in the southeastern part of the Bay of Bengal in Southeast Asia. The Andamanese peoples are among the various groups ...

s, the Kora were decimated during colonial and post-colonial times, by diseases,

alcohol Alcohol most commonly refers to: * Alcohol (chemistry), an organic compound in which a hydroxyl group is bound to a carbon atom * Alcohol (drug), an intoxicant found in alcoholic drinks Alcohol may also refer to: Chemicals * Ethanol, one of sev ...

, colonial warfare and loss of territory. The census of 1901 recorded 96 individuals, which decreased to 71 in 1911, 48 in 1921, and 24 in 1931. In 1949, any remaining Kora were relocated, with all other surviving Great Andamanese, to a reservation on

Bluff island Bluff Island may refer to the following islands: *Bluff Island (Andaman and Nicobar Islands) *Bluff Island (Antarctica), Prydz Bay, Antarctica *Bluff Island (Hong Kong) Bluff Island, indigenously known as Sha Tong Hau Shan (), also known as Ung Kon ...

. In 1969 they were relocated again to a reservation on Strait Island.Rann Singh Mann (2005)
Andaman and Nicobar Tribes Restudied: Encounters and Concerns
page 149. Mittal Publications. By 1980 only one person claimed to be a Kora member,George Weber (~2009),

''. Chapter 8 in

''. Accessed on 2012-07-12. and 1994 the Kora tribe no longer existed as a separate unit.A. N. Sharma (2003),
Tribal Development in the Andaman Islands
', page 75. Sarup & Sons, New Delhi. Although descendants of the Kora were still living in the Great Andamanese reservation of Strait Island as of 2006, they identified themselves as members of other tribes, mainly Jeru.

Anvita Abbi Professor Anvita Abbi (born 9 January 1949) is an Indian linguist and scholar of minority languages, known for her studies on tribal languages and other minority languages of South Asia. In 2013, she was honoured with the Padma Shri, the fourth ...

(2006),
Great Andamanese Community
' in

'. Accessed on 2012-07-12. The last known speaker of the Kora language died in November 2009. They were a designated

Scheduled Tribe The Scheduled Castes (SCs) and Scheduled Tribes (STs) are officially designated groups of people and among the most disadvantaged socio-economic groups in India. The terms are recognized in the Constitution of India and the groups are designa ...

References

{{authority control Ethnic groups in the Andaman and Nicobar Islands Scheduled Tribes of the Andaman and Nicobar Islands History of the Andaman and Nicobar Islands